The rand held broadly steady on Friday morning‚ as the dollar weakened further.
The greenback lost ground against a basket of currencies‚ providing the rand with the chance to potentially test fresh multiyear highs.
US President Donald Trump’s verbal intervention to halt the slide in the dollar appeared to have lasted only temporarily‚ with the US currency slipping against the euro and the pound.
Trump sought to soften the blow‚ set to be have been made by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin when he said a weaker dollar was good for US trade balance.
“Push and pull trade has been the dollar’s fate lately as global economics‚ misunderstood comments and Trump trade politics all weigh in‚” TreasuryOne dealer Gerard van Der Westhuizen said.
The rand changed hands to the dollar at R11.86 in early trade‚ bringing gains so far this week to a hefty 2.5%‚ although favourable sentiment towards the rand has been linked to local political dynamics.
Leading SA’s delegation to Davos‚ Switzerland‚ new ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa pushed all the right buttons when talking to potential investors‚ pledging policy certainty in the mining sector‚ among other things.
At 9.30am‚ the rand was at R11.8608 to the dollar from R11.9119‚ at R14.7755 to the euro from R14.7692 and at R16.8952 to the pound from R16.8443
The euro was at $1.2455 from $1.2397.
by Andries Mahlangu -BusinessLIVE
